Jeanine Ann Roose, best known for playing Little Violet Bick in the holiday classic film It’s a Wonderful Life, died Friday night at her Los Angeles home after battling an infection, TMZ reports. She was 84.
Jeanine Ann Roose worked as a child actor in the 1940s and ’50s. Her role as Little Violet in the 1946 Christmas classic was her sole film credit. You can see a clip of her in a scene from the film below.
Jeanine Ann Roose landed her first acting job at the age of eight on The Jack Benny Program. She also appeared on The Fitch Bandwagon and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show from 1946 to 1954 as a character based on the real-life daughter of Harris and Faye.
Other radio appearances included playing Chris in the Lux Radio Theatre production of I Remember Mama and an episode of Mr. President with Edward Arnold. She also starred in the unaired television pilot Arabella’s Tall Tales.
Her acting career came to a close when she enrolled at UCLA and later became a Jungian psychoanalyst.
Jeanine Ann Roose later reflected on her role on It’s A Wonderful Life and her decision to move on to a career other than acting.
“It’s A Wonderful Life was the only movie that I was in and it has been an amazing lifetime experience to have been in such a collectively meaningful picture,” she was quoted as saying.
However, she said “It became clear that my desire was specifically to help others who were struggling with finding meaning in their life — not unlike Clarence in the movie who helps George see the meaning of his life.”